Meghan with guest Mindy Kaling. Credit: Netflix.com
No Meghan-Bashing from Me
To get this out of the way – I’m neither a hater nor hard-core fan of Meghan Markle-now-Sussex. I liked her in the TV show “Suits” and other than that, I’m pretty neutral on the subject, with a generous dose of empathy for them.
So I watched all eight episodes of Meghan’s lifestyle series on Netflix that launched this week – “With Love, Meghan” – because I had a mission. That was to report on the gardening content or, failing that, images of Meghan’s garden and home. See, I’d seen “gardening” listed as one of her passions, so I assumed there’s be something in the new show for us. Ha!
What It’s About
Screen shots from “With Love, Meghan”
What you DO see is mostly cooking and “hostessing,” with glimpses of Meghan with her bees (and a beekeeper), and chickens. The photo above left is what we’re seeing while Meghan says, “That’s called a chicknic table. Don’t judge. It’s really actually called that.”
Screen shot from “With Love, Meghan”
A nice segment shows Meghan shopping for cut flowers at her local farmers market and then demonstrating her flower-arranging techniques. I did notice that while shopping she holds up a branch and asks the staff what it is. When told it’s a dogwood, she called it “a discovery!” (Is this a California thing? Though we know she lived in Toronto while filming ‘Suits’ and surely they have dogwoods.)
We also see a lot of edible “flower sprinkles” being added to the dishes that Meghan makes, leading the media to ask what they are or to declare them a “surprise ingredient.”
And Meghan make gifts for her guests, including jams and preserves, very cute gift bags for young gardeners, and beeswax candles, mostly items that will soon be available for sale on her website, As Ever. It’s the successor to her influencer site “The Tig” that launched in 2014 and was shut down after she joined the British royalty.
Honestly, “influencers” don’t really interest me, especially ones called “aspirational,” a code name for you’d-better-be-rich. So I’ll leave it to readers more knowledgeable in cooking and hostessing to judge the content. Everything is gorgeous, the production values are high, and whatever you think of Meghan, you might agree with me that she projects the kind of warmth that Martha Stewart couldn’t muster if she rehearsed all day. (Have you seen the recent documentary about her? Brr!)
Are we seeing her garden?
Screen shot from “With Love, Meghan”
Of course we all want to ogle Meghan and Harry’s digs but right up front she tells viewers “This isn’t my house.” Rather, it’s this cute home nearby rented for the filming of the show. That’s a bummer, but she didn’t want what she describes as an “80 plus crew” to take over their home for long days of filming. And of course there are privacy issues.
Screenshot from “With Love, Meghan”
The location above is shown several times but I got the impression it’s at the rental, with its view of the Los Padres National Forest, not their own home.
Credit: Santabarbaraluxuryhomes.com
As best I can tell, here’s Meghan and Harry’s actual home in Montecito, California, with its 9 bedrooms and 16 bathrooms. They bought it in 2020 for $14.65 million.
Screenshot from “With Love, Meghan”
And some good news – Meghan has said that the show includes “clips in different areas of the backyard, including the chicken coop and the orchard.”
Screenshot from “With Love, Meghan”
So when she suggests to her guests, like Alice Waters (shown here hugging the rosemary) that they go out to the garden to gather some veggies, I think we can assume it’s really her garden.
Screenshot from “With Love, Meghan”
And with Mindy Kaling.
Screenshot from “With Love, Meghan”
Screen shot from “With Love, Meghan”
Wherever this is, I love the little greenhouse for a garden party, complete with artistically arranged balloons (for which Meghan recommends the nifty mechanical pump she uses.)
WHO do we see?
Screen shot from “With Love, Meghan”
Besides Alice Waters and Mindy Kaling, others appearing as guests include a famous (I assume) chef, her make-up artist on “Suits,” her regular mahjong group, a friend from Argentina (the wife of a polo-playing pal of Harry), her mother, and, finally, Harry himself!
Reactions to the Show
I’m pretty sure the reviews of “With Love, Meghan” are the most polarized I’ve ever seen, for anything. The Guardian called it “toe-curlingly unlovable TV,” a “tone-deaf lifestyle show vibrates with vacuous joylessness – and is packed with useless information that will take a long, long time to remove from your head.” Yet another source, an occasionally snarky Slate podcast I enjoy, heaped it with praise.
I say give it a try, especially if cooking and “hostessing” are your jam. They’re not mine, so I’ll keep hoping for some gardening on a possible second season.
Gardening on “The Windsors”
Cast of “The Windsors.” Meghan and Harry are on the far left.
One happy discovery during my googling of the show was mention of a British series called “The Windsors,” which comically and even savagely (per some reviews) sends up the entire family, and I found it hilarious! I quickly consumed all 18 episodes before the show leaves Netflix on March 31, and found these references to gardening:
- A mention of Alan Titchmarsh as the most popular columnist for Waitrose Magazine.
- Camilla on the subject of sex with someone who isn’t Charles: “At least he wouldn’t be reading gardening magazines.”
- And Camilla calls Charles a “crank who spends all day talking to his daffodils.”
- The royals attended the opening of the Chelsea Flower Show, per tradition.
Garden Rant, I thought was about gardening with a heavy emphasis on “how to.” This article was a cheap snarky attack on Megan Markle for unknown reasons. Of course the ultra-wealthy employ gardeners, landscapers and anyone else they need to maintain their estates. DUH.
Throwing in a cheap insult to Martha Stewart doesn’t elevate this to something that should be on Garden Rant.
My bad, if it came across as snarky because I don’t care how privileged they are; I still like ’em. Unlike Martha, who I’ve never warmed to.
About GardenRant though, we’ve never been about how-to, and deliberately so. This post is right on brand here.
Wow, and there was me thinking that Susan was bending over backwards to try and be neutral about Meghan! Though I agree I think it wasn’t worth a post. And I’m sorry to say that as a Brit with some loyalty to the Royal Family I think they are pretty well despicable.
Always making me think, Charles! But I’m getting the idea I should update my post to clarify I don’t feel snark about them at all. Plenty of others do though, all the way to threats of violence..
I suspect the lady embracing the rosemary is Alice Waters rather than Alice Walker?
Thanks! Will fix.
I read somewhere that this show was filmed at a different location than their own home and garden. It is the property of a friend of Meaghans.
I cover that in the blog post.
Meghan seems to have gotten what she wanted. I hope Harry is as happy. But I sure wish they will stay in America. GB doesn’t need the drama and distraction. And life goes on. Cheers!
I thought it was good to read an unbiased article about the Sussexes. Quite unexpected at the moment. All the comments seemed very fair and neutral. I certainly Meghan deserves some points for perseverance in finally managing to get this series out despite all the criticism. Not sure if I could watch much of it if it is mostly about homes rather than gardens but I don’t think it should be about whether you like her or not. I’m not sure I’m going to be inspired by it unless it is to slightly up my standard of presentation when I send out gifts or entertain.
Just to remind everyone — this is the woman who virtuously proclaimed that she was only going to have two children because it was irresponsible to have more when the Earth had such limited resources.
So far, my two children have consumed less resources in their entire lives than were filmed in the first hour of this series (by an eighty-strong crew and in an additional house separate to her own multi-million dollar mansion.) She is a narcissist. And sadly, she has reinforced a lot of stereotypes the Brits held for Americans – particularly for Californians. A lost opportunity.
As for you covering the topic Susan – why not? After all she is promoting gardening as a bone-fide gardener. You can tell by the off-white cashmere ensemble she wears to pick berries.
Thought I’d add the snark you were so good to leave out. 🙂 – MW
P.S. Reminds me of my review of Martha’s tone deaf gardening series back when the real world was struggling with COVID, job loss, inflation, and educational disruption.
It’s okay to have lots of money. What’s not okay is actively making others realize they don’t.
https://gardenrant.com/2020/09/martha-knows-best-is-not-great-its-not-even-a-good-thing.html
I cannot subject myself to watching an episode, but I did watch a video where two people showed some of the “highlights,” and… it certainly did not elevate the already low opinion I have of her.
Great write up since although I was curious, never looked her up. Loved Suits, but that is where it stops.
Re: Martha, my literary agent said I should ask her for a blurb for an upcoming next gardening book and I said I was absolutely not interested. No!
Thanks for a well-written review of this show, through the lens of gardening, Susan. If someone in the U.S. claims to be “passionate about gardening,” they had better know how to identify a Dogwood! Even if they don’t grow in all parts of the country, you would think a passionate gardener would know what one looked like. Marianne said it best above: shows like this one remind most people of what they DON’T have. And by the way, please continue to write about anything you want! If people don’t like a topic, they are free to move along. I enjoy the many perspectives of this site, and appreciate all of you for sharing them with us.
Can I just say that being a member of the royal family must be about the worst life in the world!
I do admire Harry for giving it up….
As for this show, I don’t watch anything like this on television, so I can’t have an opinion, but want to point out that I haven’t had a television for very long, only 6 yrs…
I do love The Rant, even though the only gardening I’m doing now is caring for two orchids!
I love Megan’s hosting style. It very relaxed and personalized for each guest.
Also I love that her segments include shopping or gathering ingredients from various non grocery options.
Finally the thoughtfulness of her custom made gifts for each guest is classy.
Im on team Megan